Introduction

A custom server is a program, using the C or C++ language, that provides an interface between data on host computers and Blueworx Voice Response, or performs other processes, such as speech recognition and speech synthesis, generation of fax output, or coordinated call and data transfer. The data on the host system can include business information held in a database, or digitized voice data.

A custom server that uses the signaling interface, a specialized library of C subroutines, is known as a signaling process. This is used to manage an external signaling device that controls or monitors telephony channels. For more information, see the Blueworx Voice Response for AIX: Programming for the Signaling Interface information.

Access to remote data means that your voice applications can use this data to perform a variety of tasks, such as:

• Read a file or database to retrieve information that a caller needs.
• Maintain or manipulate files based on a caller's request.
• Obtain information from a combination of sources and business applications on other host computers.
• Call another program to perform any predefined process.
• Perform calculations and return the result to the state table.
• Generate business statistics based on telephony activity.
• Recognize spoken words using an external speech recognition server.
• Speak words created by an external text-to-speech server or sent from another Blueworx Voice Response system.
• Generate fax output.

Custom servers are usually invoked by state tables, but they can also be called by other custom servers.

Custom servers can be of two types:

• Applications that wait to be called by one or more state tables. This type is the most common custom server, typically used for processing functions requested from incoming calls.
• Applications that are initiated by other means under your control, such as another program or a timed event. This type is useful for processes like outbound calling, invoking a state table which might then call other custom servers and state tables.

The capabilities of a custom server are limited only by the resources of the Power System and the connectivity options at your site. You can communicate with other systems such as the IBM AS/400®, or the Apple Macintosh, Hewlett Packard, or DEC personal computers, using any communications protocol supported by the Power System (refer to the Communications Programming Concepts manual for information about communications protocols).

A sample application, the CustomServerSample, is supplied with Blueworx Voice Response. For information about this sample, see the Blueworx Voice Response for AIX: Designing and Managing State Table Applications information.

This section describes the components of a custom server.